Enhancing the Dashboard Framework with User Apps

In the Dashboard Framework, SAP delivers a lot of dashboards and apps, to show you the status and performance of your managed systems and applications. You can configure these dashboards and apps according to your requirements (see Configuring Dashboards). You can also change the layout of existing apps, or create and register your own apps in the Dashboard Framework.

If you want to put your own apps in the Dashboard Framework, you should understand the architecture of the Dashboard Framework. The most important details for the app developer are:

An app typically comprises two parts, the standard app itself, which shows performance or availability values in a dashboard, and a configuration app, in which the user can set, texts, threshold values, filters or other values, to determine the values displayed by the standard app. These two apps are a pair of partner apps.

The data displayed comes mostly from the SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse. To use this data in an app, create a BW query.

You create the user interface of the apps with the program Dashboard and Presentation Design (Xcelsius), an SAP BusinessObjects product. To create your own apps, you need a license.

Caution

The Dashboard Framework currently only supports versions since Xcelsius 2008.

End of the caution.

You create connections for the data transfer of the app, in Xcelsius. Data could be transferred, for example, from the configuration app to the standard app, from a BW query (the source of the data to be displayed) to the app, or from the configuration app to the BW query, to filter the BW data.

All data from or to an app or configuration app is transferred using Xcelsius connections.

Note

For information about using Xcelsius, see the SAP Help Portal (http://help.sap.com) under AnalyticsBusiness IntelligenceDashboards (Xcelsius)Xcelsius 2008 Service Pack 4.

End of the note.

Another type of app is the context app. Like the configuration app, it sets the conditions for the app data to be displayed, but for all apps with relevant connections in a dashboard, not just one app. A context app in a dashboard is always displayed.

Export the user interface as a Flash file (file extension SWF) in Xcelsius, to display the app user interface in a dashboard.

To be able to show your own apps in a dashboard, you must register it in the Dashboard Framework registration tool. You must specify how the data is transferred via the Xcelsius connections.

Registration Tool Functions

You can change the layout of existing apps beyond the configuration, e.g. by changing the graphics or colors, or inserting your company logo. For more information, see Changing the Layout of an App. You make these changes in Xcelsius, but they are not complex because you do not change the connections.

You can delete or copy apps. See Copy and Delete Apps. This is necessary to change the layout of apps delivered by SAP. They are protected against changes, so you must copy them first.